An Officer and a Spy

from.’
    ‘I notice you haven’t put your own name on it.’
    ‘I know that I’m not a suspect.’
    ‘You might know that, but I don’t. A casual observer might find it a curious coincidence that just as you begin agitating for a reopening of the Dreyfus case, revelations about it start to appear in the press.’
    There is a loud crack from somewhere beyond the tall windows. It sounds as though a tree has blown down. Rain slashes against the glass. Boisdeffre, still staring at me, doesn’t seem to notice.
    ‘I deny that insinuation absolutely, General. These stories do nothing to help my investigation, as you have just made clear. They only make it more difficult.’
    ‘That’s one view. Another is that you are seeking every possible means to reopen the Dreyfus case, whether by going to the minister behind my back, or fomenting an agitation in the press. Did you know that a member of the Chamber of Deputies has announced he is seeking to question the government about the whole affair?’
    ‘I give you my word I had nothing to do with this.’
    The general bestows on me a look of deep suspicion. ‘Let us hope this is the end of these disclosures. It’s bad enough for the press to report the existence of the file. If they were to describe its actual contents, it would become much more serious. I’ll keep this list, if I may.’
    ‘Of course.’ I bow my head in a way that I hope indicates contrition, even though I don’t feel it.
    ‘Very well, Colonel.’ He flicks his fingers, as if dismissing a waiter at the Jockey Club. ‘You may go.’
    I step out into the rue Saint-Dominique to find a hurricane blowing: a freak system that moves across Paris between noon and three. I have to clutch on to the railings to prevent myself being knocked off my feet; by the time I reach our building I am drenched to the skin. The wind takes roofs off the Opéra-Comique and the Préfecture of Police. It blows out the windows on one side of the Palace of Justice. Riverboats are torn from their moorings and dashed against the quays. Some of the laundrywomen on the banks of the Seine are blown into the water and have to be rescued. The stalls in the flower market in the place Saint-Sulpice are entirely whisked away. Walking home that evening I pass through streets that lie ankle-deep in shredded vegetation and broken tiles. The havoc is terrible, but privately I am relieved: the press will have other things to talk about for the next few days apart from Captain Dreyfus.

14
    THE RESPITE IS brief. On Monday, L’Éclair publishes a second and longer article. Its headline couldn’t be worse from my point of view: ‘The Traitor: The Guilt of Dreyfus Demonstrated by the Dossier’.
    Feeling sick, I carry it over to my desk. The story is grossly inaccurate but it includes some telling details: that the secret dossier was passed to the judges in the room where they were deliberating; that the dossier contained confidential letters between the German and Italian military attachés; and that one of these letters referred specifically to ‘that animal Dreyfus’ – not exactly ‘that lowlife D’ but close enough. ‘It was this irrefutable proof,’ concludes the article, ‘that determined the verdict of the judges.’
    I drum my fingers. Who is revealing all this detail? Guénée says it is the Dreyfus family. I’m not so sure. Who stands to gain from the leaks? From where I sit, the most obvious beneficiaries are those who want to create a siege mentality within the Ministry of War and curtail my inquiry into Esterhazy. It is the phrase ‘that animal Dreyfus’ that strikes a chord in my memory. Isn’t that what du Paty always claimed about Dreyfus: that he had ‘animal urges’?
    I take a pair of scissors from my desk and carefully cut out the article. Then I write a letter to Gonse, who is still on leave: Recently I took the liberty of telling you that in my opinion we were going to have a major problem on our hands if we did not take the initiative. The attached article in L’Éclair unfortunately confirms me in my opinion. I feel obliged to repeat that in my view it is imperative to act without delay. If we wait any longer, we will be overwhelmed, locked into an inextricable position, and unable either to defend ourselves or ascertain the real truth.
    I hesitate before I post it. I am putting my opinion formally on the record. Gonse is a consummate soldier of the filing cabinet, if not the battlefield. He will